Members of the Catholic Press Association (CPA), gathered in Florida last week, voted against making a formal statement regarding the resignation of ‘America’ magazine editor, Fr. Thomas Reese over the magazine’s widely-viewed overemphasis on dissent from Catholic teaching.

During the joint meeting of the Catholic Academy for Communication Arts Professionals and the CPA, the group voted 48-28 against a proposed statement emphasizing the importance of Catholic journalists “exercising our mission with editorial freedom and responsibility."

An 80-member conference majority favored the recommendation to appoint a committee to discuss the matter further. Meinrad Scherer-Emunds, executive editor of U.S. Catholic magazine, introduced the proposed statement, which was voted down on May 26th.

Earlier this month, Reese, a Jesuit priest resigned from the Jesuit-run publication after serving seven years as its editor. Many speculate that his community forced the resignation because of Vatican pressure over the magazine’s inordinate amount of reporting on issues of dissent from Catholic teaching.